The Backburner Effect
by Arianwen-Crescent
Summary: When a weapons' catastrophic failure kills a RED scout and puts the BLU Pyro's life on the line, who will be on the backburner to save them?


The wind howled against the windows and echoed through the corridors mixing with beeps of sentries and the screams of pain from the main halls. The explosions rattled the Builders' League United, or BLU, base in Turbine. The duty of protecting the BLUs' precious intelligence fell to the one Pyrotechnic, Pyro for short, one the BLU team. The blue clad fire user sat alone in the large room, the hiss of their Backburner's pilot light as small source of warmth and comfort in the madness they sat amongst. Many rumors flew around about what lie beneath that mask, but only the teams' medic, Adolfo, knew the truth. He was also the reason the Pyro now sat alone in the intelligence room. The fire user suffered from a rare condition known as Synesthesia, meaning that the teams' fire user would see sounds, tastes colours and hear smells, all of this on the battlefield led to it all blending together into something akin to another world, deemed Pyroland. After a rather horrific episode in Sawmill where the fire wielder had single handily killed the entire RED team believing they were friends, the Pyro was pushed into a position that would keep these episodes to a minimum.

They sighed, the sound muffled by the gas mask that hid their features from the world. The sound of rapid footfalls coming down the corridor to the intelligence room, made the Pyro duck against the pillar in the middle of the room for cover, ready to ambush the foolish RED and maybe see a little of Pyroland. The RED Scout darted into the room and made a beeline for the Intelligence case as the Pyro stalked silently behind him. "Wave good-bye to your secret crap, dumbass." The Scout said as he made to pick up the case. ""Mmmphya harrgh mrgha hrghgph..." The Pyro said. They pulled the release handle of their Backburner and there was an ominous hiss followed by a flourish of flames before an ear splitting explosion. The flamethrower in questions' fuel line had cracked over the many months of use and exploded outwards. The RED scout was killed instantly when the propane tank connected with his head and snapped his neck and the main supporting pipe sliced jagged edge first through his lower abdomen. The weapons' wielder was propelled backwards by the blast and slammed into the support pillar with enough force to chip the concrete. The firemancer slumped to their knees before collapsing in a heap on the floor, their air tank now no longer feeding them oxygen, weighed just enough to make it impossible for them to get up in their injured state. They struggled to pull enough oxygen into their lungs before yelling for help. "DEL!"

The desperate plea for help echoed in corridors where Del Conagher, the BLU Engineer, was erecting a level 3 sentry at the door. His hard hated head spun round at the sound of an explosion and then his name. "Damnit fellas, Firebug!" Del cursed as he took off down the hall towards the intelligence room, Frontier Justice in his hand. When Del entered the large room and skidded to a stop, he was shocked and very worried. The mangled body of the dead Scout lay in the middle of the floor, blood everywhere, neck broken and the broken pipe sticking out of his body. Del instantly recognized the pipe and the propane tank laying near the other doorway, as well as the other various pieces that had once made up the Pyro's Backburner. With a quick glance around the room Del's eyes landed on the crumpled form of his teammate. The two of them shared a good relationship; the short pyromancer would protect his buildings against sneaky turncoat spies and his back as well and in return the Pyro asked for nothing more than a friend.

Del rushed to his fallen friends' side, "Hey little buddy..." He said he set about unbuckling the air tank and the incendiary grenades. Once the straps were undone, he removed the twenty seven pound air tank and the grenade belt and then gently rolled Pyro over onto their back. He could faintly hear the strangled breaths of his friend; one side of the masks' air filter had melted. There was a large blood stain on the Pyro's typically pristine suit turning the prefect sky blue a muddy brown. His friend was alarmingly unresponsive, leading him to believe they were losing consciousness or already gone. Del fought with himself as he debated removing the gas mask so the Pyro could breathe or to leave in place. He knew that his friend was a secretive person and he didn't want to invade their privacy but their life was on the line and they were without a respawn. Finally deciding he ripped off his gloves and found the edges of the mask, he then gently removed the melted plastic and rubber.

As the mask came free, choppy black hair fell free and pooled on the floor framing the fine features of a young woman no older than thirty. Mismatch blue and grey eyes were heavily lidded and pale ivory skin was taking on a greyish tone. Running from her hair line to her left grey eye and down to her jaw was blinding white scar with the remnant scars of stitches overlapping it. She gasped as she became able to breathe, as strangled as the breath was. "You stay with me now ya hear?" Del said as he began to loosen the closures of her suit. Her hand twitched the tips of her gloves melted to her fingers, slowly grasped Del's upper arm and squeezing it tight as if it were her life line. Del looked down at the hand as he ripped the remaining closures open, it didn't take much to see the panic radiating from her body. "Hey, I got you darlin', I got you." Del freed her hand and quickly removed her battered body from her now ruined suit. The last thing the Pyro could clearly remember was the Administrator calling the round to the BLU's and Del rushing her away from the intelligence room before ever began to fade to darkness.

Sometime much later, the Pyro opened her mismatched eyes. The quiet constant beep of a heart rate monitor reached her ears and she could feel the tubing for the oxygen being fed into her body against her skin. She swallowed and licked her lips, glancing about with blue and grey eyes. Raising a hand she saw the Intravenous line running into her hand, old scar white against her skin in the dim light of what she assumed was the infirmary. "Good evening Fraulein, did you have a good nap? Her Engineer 'as been beside 'imself vith vorry for you Fraulein." Adolfo Schumacher, the BLU Medic greeted. The Pyro blinked and attempted to shifted her body, the result was less that comforting, it felt as though the RED Heavy had unloaded all two rounds of his mini-gun into her slim body. "Now hush and lie still, you are lucky that Del found you when he did, or you would be dead Emma." Adolfo scolded. Emma, the Pyro, groaned and settled. Adolfo injected a little more pain killer into her IV. "Her Conagher vill be 'ere to visit you soon." Adolfo informed her as he went to the door, "I am going for dinner."

Without a second glance in her direction, he left her alone. Emma looked up at the ceiling; she could feel the bandages and stitches across her abdomen. "How do I always survive what should claim my life?" She asked the empty room. The smell of the infirmary was like sand paper on tin, it was about as uncomfortable as I felt. Her heart rate monitor made pale pink wisps dance at the edges of her vision. Emma sighed as the taste of battery acid lingered in her mouth while the pain killers took effect. She let her eyes drift shut to think, the explosion had been a wakeup call, Del had come so quickly, even though he could have left her. He had battled with himself over her mask and been something for her mind to cling to as he freed her from her suit and equipment. Del had probably carried her all the way to Adolfo without a second thought; all these things struck her as odd, made her ask why.

The infirmary was quiet and Emma didn't hear Del come in with a bowl of soup and a cup of tea, earl grey, black, the way she liked it. "How ya feeling there firebug?" Del asked causing Emma's eyes to snap to him. "Del..." Emma gasped, "You startled me something awful." Del smiled, his eyes hidden behind his goggles, as he placed the mug of warm tea in her hands. "Sorry 'bout that, but I think we may be even for the fright you gave a week ago in the intelligence room." He replied. Emma choked on the tea he had given her, "...a week ago...?" She squeaked out. Del nodded as he noticed the tremble running across Emma's shoulders and the gooseflesh on her arms. The hard hatless Del reached down and took the blanket off the foot of the cot before wrapping it around her shoulders. "Ya know something firebug? We've been partners for over three years now and I have no idea what to call ya other than Pyro." Del commented, securing the blanket around her shoulders and looking right at her eyes.

She smiled, "Emma, Emma LePointe." Del smiled widely, "Now that's a pretty name partner, pleasure to finally meet you proper like." Emma looked at her friend with soft eyes, "You know something else Del, I know your name, I know where you came from and I even know how many doctorates you have, but in the whole of three years I've been here, I've not once seen your eyes." There was a moment of silence before Del chuckled and removed his nearly worn out safety goggles. When he looked back at her, baby blue eyes shone with mirth, "You Miss LePointe, are real sharp." Del chuckled. "Just Emma and if I weren't would you still find my company so interesting?" Emma countered. They chatted quietly while Emma ate her soup, the company was comforting and reassuring without having to mime her way through a conversation. "So, your Backburner is toast but I'm working on a new flamethrower for you, calling it a Degreaser, whatcha think?" Del asked as he sat on the foot of the bed. Emma smiled, "Sounds like fun." The rest of the evening was filled with laughter until Emma began to doze off. A week or so later Emma was back on light duties, always where Del could see her and hear her with his newest weapon in her hands. "I got you back this time firebug, this time and always after."

FIN


End file.
